How do you ever initiate property ownership without introducing injustice? This is a question that occupied much of my intellectual energy not too long ago. The answer I came to is that you can’t, at least not if you are trying to come up with some standalone justification for property ownership of the sort libertarians… Continue reading The Nozickian case for Rawls’ difference principle
Policy Shop Weekly Digest: Fast Food Strikes, Free Higher Education
I had 2 posts over at Demos’ Policy Shop this week. Here is a rundown with links: False Concerns for the Poor. Excerpt: Finally, this concern trolling is such an empty game ultimately. The reality is that these workers are living terrible lives. Many of their kids, due to the horrors of poverty, are on… Continue reading Policy Shop Weekly Digest: Fast Food Strikes, Free Higher Education
Walmart and Jobs: Stop
Salon has an article today about Walmart. At one point, it drops into the very rote and boring line that Walmart kills 1.4 retail jobs for every 1 retail job it creates. This line comes from a Neumark et al study called “The Effects of Wal-Mart on Local Labor Markets.” Technically, this is not an… Continue reading Walmart and Jobs: Stop
Policy Shop Weekly Digest: Poverty, Social Mobility, Higher Education
I had 3 posts over at Demos’ Policy Shop this week. Here is a rundown with links: Poverty is Poison. Excerpt: The lead analogy is a good one for purposes of policy construction. In response to learning that lead was messing up kids brains, we sought to eliminate exposure to it, e.g. by banning leaded… Continue reading Policy Shop Weekly Digest: Poverty, Social Mobility, Higher Education
Student debt and wealth and here we go again
Robin Hiltonsmith has a report at Demos called “At What Cost?” It purports to show the lifetime wealth hit a median couple graduating from public college will face due to student debt. The report has a number of defects, a few of which I detail below. 1. The debt assumption is 50 percent higher than… Continue reading Student debt and wealth and here we go again